9 – 12 March 2017 at the White Lion Bar & Kitchen

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Simon Young, Acquisition Manager at Shorts TV

Doors are now open for entries for the 2016 Beeston Film Festival, and so it seems a good time to catch up with one of our judges. Simon Young is Acquisition Manager at Shorts TV, the internet TV channel accessible to over 40 million people worldwide.

I asked Simon why Shorts TV are so passionate about shorts. “They are an under-appreciated art form! They take creative chances that feature films cannot, and are the starting point for the careers of many great directors (and actors).This was absolutely the case in the 2015 Beeston Film Festival. Who will forget films such as ‘Flawless’, ‘Ironied’ and ‘Chaque jour est une petite vie’ as examples of films that were full of creative derring-do?

For Simon, the key elements required for a film to be taken on by Shorts TV are “originality; preferably an upbeat story; clean (if for daytime broadcast); and one of several popular genres including Horror, Love, Sci-Fi, “Sexy”, and CGI Animations. Star names are very useful for us in terms of marketing too…..” . With the market place for film channels ever increasing, Shorts TV intends to expand into more countries. Simon’s view is, “personally I would particularly love us to re-launch in the UK.”

In the meantime, Simon will be busy as a 2016 Beeston Film Festival judge. Being a judge at the 2015 festival was productive, as the winner of the Horror B’Oscar, The Stomach, has been signed for a full global distribution deal though Shorts International, and will also be broadcast on Shorts TV and Shorts HD. Following this success, Simon’s hope is that the quality of the 2016 festival will generate even more distribution deals.